skip down to the dreams
Dreams of angels... but that word can have two meanings. One is physical: winged humanoids, not all of whom act traditionally angelic. The other is a job description: indermediaries between gods and the mortal world, responsible for watching and guarding. You don't need wings for that--or a human face.

So what do dream-angels mean? Depends on your background, I think. If you grew up in a culture full of Judeo-Christian-Muslim ideas, then a good fit between advice and appearance (is it big-hearted, positive?) suggests good advice, while contrast between appearance and behavior sharp enough to shock you (dogs, dinosaurs or devils filling an angel's shoes, or angelic figures behaving shabbily or worse) sure invites skepticism. No need to look for devils--it may just mean your dreams think someone's behavior doesn't match their position, or the role you've cast them in. Think critically.

Given my nonreligious background, this may seem odd, but my own dreams of guardian angels giving solace or advice have been pretty reliable. Whether they're beings visiting you or your own mind sending you advice I don't know, but anyone going to the trouble to rent that fancy costume to grab your attention probably has an urgent message. So check those brakes, make that call, whatever. I'm skeptical only when you've had previous dreams of resistance or a saboteur, and when heeding the message might further the goals of that saboteur side of you. Or when angels suggest buying explosives...

You can ask for verification, you know. A proper angel should be willing to put in the overtime and come back the next night to confirm or clarify what needs doing.

Having said all that, you'll notice many of the angels I meet aren't oracles or advisors at all. They have their own odd agendas--taking a vacation, getting laid, quitting angelic work and getting parts in movies... Job burnout is universal.

Or you may find that you're the one working as an angel. And why not? Why wait til you're dead? If you're sleeping, your spirit has some free time, right? In fact, it's an uncomfortable question for believers; as evidence mounts that dreamers can share dreams, that limited dream-telepathy is real, doesn't it become possible that ALL angelic visitations are from living souls? What if we are EACH OTHERS' guardian angels, and always were?

ABOVE THE WHITE TOWER: by Wayan; 1990/1/14, a flying sex-change dream of love
Flying in a wild wind, I mate mid-air with an alien, get pregnant, change sex, fight the inlaws...
CAUTION: DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME

THE ANGEL: by William Blake; early 1790s; a gender-bending dream-poem
Blake dreams he's a young queen with an uneasy relationship to her guardian angel...

ANGEL ON MY SILL: by Wayan; 1993, digital portrait of spirit seen during sex
A guardian angel who's a sort of kindly, sacred succubus...
CAUTION: SEX

ANGELUNE: by Wayan; 1999 acrylic painting
The joyful animal-angel I feel myself to be in my happiest dreams.

ANNUNCIATION TO THE SPHINX: by Wayan; 1995, digital painting of nondream vision.
I think Yeats was wrong to use the Sphinx to symbolize the brutal post-Christian era he foresaw...

ANOREXIA NIRVANA: by Wayan; 1993, a digital picture-poem of astral temptation.
I was anorexic for years; I only mastered it when I saw it was a hunger for the spirit world...

ARCHANGEL: by Wayan; 1997/10/19, a dream-farce--or is it?
Sure I've been through hell, but how the hell did that get me elected archangel? And why's my butt itch?
CAUTION: ITCHY BUTT

ARENNA, FREED: by Wayan; 1991/11/6, a magical pastlife/flying/freedom dream.
I learn to fly from Arenna the moon-girl and Crest the dragon, in the House of Deep Memory...

THE ARRIVAL: by Elizabeth Gibbons, 2014; a spiritual dream about dreams
I'm a priestess from an island of women; I meet an angel who charges me to harvest all the dreams of the world...

ARROW OF FIRE: by Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury and others, 1100/8/1, predictive dreams.
Anselm dreams God orders King William's death by an arrow of fire, as the King dreams his blood covers the sun. Waking, he mocks a third man's ominous dream, goes hunting, and dies bloodily at sunset, an arrow in his heart...

ASTRALNAUT: by Wayan; 1994/7/30, a reverse ghost dream.
I have amnesia. Plus, I'm dead. On the other hand, I have this great NASA job! Only there's a saboteur...
CAUTION: SNOTTY ABOUT CHRISTIANS AGAIN

BAR BET: by Wayan; 1982/4/2, a dream-quest on not settling for less.
On a bar-bet, we seek God. We reach the Isles of the Blessed, but they're too complacent. We want the wild God, the real God, the Bad Taste God. Onward, pagan questers! Because we want to win our bet.
CAUTION: LAZY-ASS ANGELS

BATMAN'S LOVE: by Wayan; 1996/3/26, a dream-epic of love and time.
A New Age graduation party spurs a wild dream of the spiritual odyssey of Catwoman, starring Alexander the Great, Batman, God, and Rumi the poet (played by Frank Zappa)...
CAUTION: MORAL RELATIVITY

BLESS MY PHOBIA: by Wayan; dreamed 1992/8/15; story + silk painting.
I was Eve's guardian angel the second time round, and I blew it again. But this time, it came out right....
CAUTION: BREASTS AND BEASTS

BLUE MER-ANGEL: by Wayan; 2000, ceramic sculpture, 11.5" long.
Seems strange to have no hands. How do dolphins get things done? By not needing to get things done?
CAUTION: MILD NUDITY

BLUE SOUP, NO SPARK: by Wayan; 115K, 1985/6/1, an epic dream on outgrowing God
A visit to a world where they fear blue soup ends in death and resurrection, so I'm pissed at my boss--God.
CAUTION: DEATH, REBIRTH, SACRILEGE, JOB BURNOUT

BUMBREE SYNDROME: by Wayan; 1984/3/14, a comic dream about dreams.
Princess Chinchilla and I use an umbrella to escape the Wizard. Now to escape the Dream Researchers!...

CLOUD OF GLORY: by Wayan, 1986/5/19, a dream on identity loss.
Abducted as a kid by alien angels, raised in a luminous cloud, I find it hard to keep a human perspective...

CONFUSED?: by Wayan; 1996? Digital painting of my main mental state.
When I'm confused, this angel comforts me with this MORE confusing quote...

COYOTE ANGEL: by Wayan; 1999-2000, sculpture of dream figure.
A shapeshifter caught in the moment of transformation, just as her arms unfold into smoky wings...
CAUTION: NUDITY

CREATING WINGS: by Robert Southey; 1805. Beauty to nightmare to flight.
Saints and devils in a sunken statuary garden turn too real for comfort; so, creating my own wings, I fly...

DANCING ROBBANE: by Emily Joy; 2007/8/1, sculpture of a dream sculpture.
The clay came alive, shaped itself, started dancing...and mutating.

DIVINE IMAGE, or, A VISION OF ADONAI: by Anna Kingsford, 1877/7/23, a waking vision
Gazing at the moon, Anna suddenly finds herself touring the Solar System and meeting all the planetary guardians...
CAUTION: MYSTICAL ECSTASY

DRAGGED TO HER HEART'S DESIRE: by Wayan; 1997/9/16, a dream with a lesson.
The friends of a touchy aviator have to kidnap her just to give her a present... and WHAT a present...

FEVER DREAMS: by Wayan; 1993/9/8, a set of wild feverdreams.
While my body expels a kidney stone, weird scenes happen on the astral plane. At least I get to dip the pope.
CAUTION: PAIN, PEE, POPE

FOUR ELEMENTALS: by Wayan, four recurrent 2009 dream-figures, 2010/1/1 to 1/14
For the New Year, I draw a group portrait of the old year's main dream-figures. This year four needs came up over & over...

GENNADIUS: by Gennadius, ca. 415 AD, apparently the first recorded lucid dream
Gennadius re-dreams a previous dream, prompting him to notice he's dreaming. His guide points out the spiritual implications...

THE GUARDIAN ANGEL COURSE: by Wayan; 1984/9/29, a long-term predictive dream
I get bored with crime, so I take a course in finding my Guardian Angel. But my test results are strange...
CAUTION: WEIRD ANGELS

GYRLFALCON: by Wayan; 1971/11/26, an early dream of love and battle.
I'm a Gyrlfalcon in a theater, fighting the Wolverine and his Morlocks with my lover the Green Lion...

HAWK ANGEL: by Wayan; 1982/12/28; a dream on rejecting hearsay.
I dreamed I met a sort of hawk angel, but there was this preachy guy between us...
CAUTION: NUDITY

HELL-TORNADO: by Wayan; 1988/7/2, a dream on social engineering.
Who built the tornado in the Heartland, that sucks anyone who opens their spirit-wings down to Hell?
CAUTION: BAD THEOLOGY, WORSE PHYSICS

HELP, NOT CURE: by Wayan; 1996/12/26, a dream on autism.
Gay angels try to help an autistic woman. Change her past? Only if they pass the Ass-Backward Guardians!

IS GOD GOD?: by Wayan; 1984/6/17, a dream of the school of hard knocks.
God watches over me--to slap me down. If God is even God. So I set out to learn about this jerk-God...

JACOB'S LADDER: by Jacob, grandson of Abraham; c. 2050 BCE; a self-fulfilling prophetic dream.
Jacob dreams of angels climbing to heaven. He meets God, who promises the Holy Land to him and his descendants. Jacob uncritically accepts the gift...

JILL THE PEST: by Wayan; 240K, 2001/2/22, a nondream visionary comic.
I had a headache and couldn't sleep. I started drawing, and asked for a cure. And a cartoon angel said...
CAUTION: TANTRUMS, MASTURBATION, JUNKFOOD, ANGELIC SCOLDING

JOYOUS RIDE: by Janis Amatuzio, c. 1953; an ecstatic childhood dream of flight with a guardian angel
I was about three. A big, luminous figure said he was my guardian and would be with me always. He took me on a horseback ride through the sky...

KING OF THE KILN: by Wayan; 1996/11/25, a psychic dream.
I dream of a scary king who offers to bake my dreams to strengthen them. Then my friend Mark calls...

LOLA: by Wayan; 1995/4/22, a wild dream: psychic, shamanic and... economic?
How the hell do I summarize this? Lola, a werefox I'm hot for, becomes my feudal Japanese brother, and her fox-shape reappears as the truck-driving maid for a Han Dynasty lady. We counter the interdimensional energy vampires by importing ghost unicorns on sailing ships, who have an orgy...
Two weeks later it all comes true. Literally? No. But closer than you think....

LONELY NO MORE!: by Wayan; 2000, a sculpture of American singlehood.
The Dating Fairy, built on lonely evenings waiting for her to call me back--whoever "her" was that week...
CAUTION: NUDITY, SEXUAL THEMES

LONG ROAD TO HEAVEN: by Edwin Muir; 1920, an epic hypnogogic shamanic initiation
Creatures in the primal sea touch my third eye, dragons cry their eyes out, I fight the Sphinx, and arrive at last in...

LUCID FLIGHT: by Lisa Reich; March 2003, an ecstatic lucid dream of flight.
I flew as if part of the air--an otherworldly freedom so exquisite I wonder if it's attainable at all in earthly existence...

LUNAMOTH (Around #11): by Wayan; 150K, 1998; 2 portraits of a dream-self, one digital, one acrylic
Day Me curls up and Night Me unfolds: a girl with dark moth-wings, not angel-white but camouflaged...

THE MAD UNVEILERS: by Marie-Claude Girondé, early 2009, a dream painting.
The dancers, in a frenzy, stripped themselves. Not just their clothes; themselves...

MATISSE IS NO MOE: by Wayan; 1988. Matisse-style collage-poem.
An elegy to a great paper-cutter, and three (or was it four?) sado-humorists who still scare me a little...

MIRYAM'S THEFT: by Wayan; 1996/9/24, a psychic dream on being used
I'm a ghost dwarf in love with a Lady trapped in a magic Arabian castle. But our love is being used...
CAUTION: SEX, BETRAYAL, SACRILEGE

MOM ON THE WING: by a tail gunner; 1942-45, a lifesaving warning dream
I saw my mother standing on the tip of one wing of our plane. She was dressed in white flowing robes and calling my name, warning me of danger...

MOVING IN THE LANDSCAPES OF MY DREAMS: by Jenny Badger Sultan; an epic canvas hiding over a dozen dreamscenes (mostly Jan-Mar 2011)
Inspired by a dream, I painted a big canvas landscape with movable (magnetic) dream figures and flaps revealing hidden dream scenes...

NATALIUS' WELTS: by Natalius the Confessor, ca. 155 AD, a dream leaving physical traces.
Natalius dreamed that angels whipped him for joining a heretic cult, and woke to find welts on his back...

ODE TO PSYCHE: by John Keats; 1819, a poem based on a dream-encounter
Keats met two winged lovers nesting in the woods: Eros and Psyche, the last Olympians, worshipless...

ORIOLE GIRL: by Wayan; 100K, 7 illus., 1992/1/23, a poem telling a psychic dream.
While conducting a census of fairies in Golden Gate Park, I fall in love with an abused oriole-angel, and we try to heal each other...
CAUTION: AWKWARD SEX

OVER THE VOLCANO: by AE (George Russell); c.1900, an embarkation dream.
We're spirits over a volcanic fountain of energy. And some of us prepare to ride the current up to...
CAUTION: ASSUMES MYSTICAL LITERACY

OZETTE ANGEL: by Wayan; 1992. Dream-tinged landscape.
West of Seattle, near Lake Ozette, a mudslide buried a whole Makah Indian village centuries ago...

TAOIST DEBUT: by Wayan; 2012/9/16, a dreamlet on book-learning vs. living experience
I'm at the court of Jenghiz Khan, as rival priests try and fail to convert the Mongols. Then a Taoist demigod walks up...

TAROT: DEATH (Resurrection): by Wayan; Tarot card, 3x5", summer 1979.
So you die, and to your secular surprise, your soul or psyche (which does after all mean butterfly) metmorphoses into...

THREE DREAMS: by Robley Wilson; July 4, 1975?; a dream-poem
Dead fish in a poisoned stream, dead kittens in a pit... and advice from the woman who revives them with a touch.

THE THREE VEILS BETWEEN MAN AND GOD: by Anna Kingsford, March 1881, a prophetic, almost messianic, dream.
I was shown what veils the God in us: Blood (violence), Idols (dogmatism), and the Curse of Eve (sexism)...
CAUTION: FUNDAMENTALISTS (OF ANY FAITH) WILL SEE RED

TRENCHCOAT ANGELS: by Wayan; 2010/1/21; a flying diagnostic visitation dream
I'm flying around a half-built house when I'm cornered by three scary archangels in trenchcoats. But they want my help...

UNDER THEIR MASKS: by Wayan; 2000/3/17, an ecdysiastic dream
Masked champions of Good and Evil fight, peeling off layers till they're elven-thin--what's left to hide?...

VERITY'S WINGS: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2009/8/21; a dreampainting from the Box of Dreams
My friend Verity's given a beautiful set of wings. I feel envy--until I consider what angel wings can imply...

VERTICAL PLANES: by Wayan; 1990/3/7, an astral pirate dream.
We're air pirates running a music shop, till our biplanes are hijacked by cat angels! Furious, we set out...

'WE'RE ALL HUMAN': by Wayan; 1987/3/13, a dream trial.
For flirting in the astral cafeteria, we all get sentenced to group therapy--till I catch the lie in my life...

WHAT YOU IMAGINE HAPPENS: by Wayan; 1982/2/21; a dreampoem personifying quarks. Or spooks.
I'm stuck on a runaway bus. So we decided to picture the axle falling off, and it obeys. But the bus zooms on, carried by a horde of little animals...
CAUTION: SCIENTIFIC SKEPTICS WILL LOATHE THE AFTERWORD (true story, though)

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